Pop Quiz: Fun with New Items

Happy Saturday, folks! Your one-day quick-fire challenge today is to create an awesome image using one of the new items I posted this morning from either Background-Cityscapes or ItemRight-Pistols. To refresh your memory, those items are:


Edited to Add: You can also use the new Companions:

You can use one item, or all of them, or anything in between. You can use an item once or a thousand times, so long as there's at least one of the new ones in there somewhere.

You only get one entry -- that's right, just one! So make it your best. Most of the other rules are the same as for a regular challenge, but instead of a whole week I'll announce my favorites either tonight or tomorrow morning. Elaborate backgrounds aren't necessary, though if you've got one it's fine.

  • All entries must be in JPG or PNG form (BMPs are too big), posted to a publicly accessible website (like ImageShack, PhotoBucket, the HeroMachine Forums, whatever);
  • Entries must be made as a comment or comments to this post, containing a link directly to the image and the character name;
  • Please name your files as [your name]-[character name].[file extension]. So DiCicatriz, for instance, would save his "Bayou Belle" character image as DiCicatriz-BayouBelle.png.
  • Please make the link go directly to the image (like this) and not to a hosting jump page (like this). Here's a quick-start guide on how to do that for various image hosting services.

I'll pick one entry as my personal favorite, which will get to be featured in the side bar to the right for ultimate glory! As a bonus you're allowed to say you won the Internet for a few days.

Good luck!

New pistol fronts and cityscapes

I've just updated Background-Cityscapes and ItemRight-Pistols with the following items:


Hopefully those will help with some of the more creative poses you all are trying to do.

I guess that's one way to go about it …

Barbario in "De-Pixelated – Borderlands"

Our very own Barbario is in another game-inspired video! Check him out, it's pretty cool:

Bruce Wayne and the Red Hood Gang

Bruce Wayne and the Red Hood Gang

By: Andrew Hines

So clearly, this is no longer a rule. The 0 issue is pretty good, considering after last week's Detective Comics, there wasn't much left to cover. In this one, we see the original Red Hood before Jason Todd took over the mantle. We see Alfred, of course, Jim Gordon and even a Dark Knight-ish Bat Cave. The only thing is, we never see Wayne Manor, which Gordon makes mention of. It feels very much like the first half of Year One.

Scott Snyder has done a great job for the last year on this title, giving us great stories in Court of Owls, Night of the Owls and now the origin issue. From start to finish it's very much a Batman book. He may be relatively green, but still Batman. Bruce even mentions something that fans have long known, Bruce Wayne is the real facade. I can't wait for the next few months of this title. My only problem is the cliffhanger ending, which left me on the edge of my seat.

Greg Capullo is an amazing artist, simply in the way that he is consistent. There are no bad angles in here. Every motion is captured as if it were stills from the latest, greatest action movie. We never see the Batsuit, but moves are unmistakably Batman. Jonathan Galpion's inks and Fco Plascencia's colors work as the perfect complement to Capullo's pencils. Theses issues are beginning to rival the art of Bruce Timm from Batman: The Animated Series in just how iconic they are. They fit the character wonderfully.

The ending was the only thing keeping this from being top of the class for this week. The creative team gets an "A-."

Open Critique Day #46

Don't worry, we'll be gentle.

My full-time (non-HeroMachine) job might keep me from actually getting to these before this evening, but it's time for another Open Critique Day!

If you have a HeroMachine illustration or another piece of artwork you've done that you'd like some help with, post a link to it in comments along with your thoughts on it -- what you think is working, what you're struggling with, etc. I will post my critique of the piece, hopefully giving some tips on how to improve it.

Of course everyone is welcome to post their critiques as well, keeping in mind the following guidelines:

  • Make sure your criticism is constructive. Just saying "This sucks" is both rude and unhelpful without giving specific reasons why you think it sucks and, ideally, some advice on how to make it better.
  • Each person should only post one illustration for critique to make sure everyone who wants feedback has a chance.
  • I will not critique characters entered in any currently running contest, as that doesn't seem fair to the other entrants. You can still post it if you like for the other visitors to critique, but I will not do so.

That's it! Hopefully we can get some good interaction going here and help everyone (me included!) learn a little bit today.

Your'e Going To Die VII

When last we left our intrepid Office Adventurer, we were locked in a storage closet with the boss' bratty son. Our options were to a) stay in the room and hope for the best or b) go exploring to try and find our way out. I enjoyed all four of the suggested outcomes (thanks to Renxin, Herr D, Gero, and borntobealoser!), but I'm going to go with Gero's as our official response. Here's what happens as a result of both choices:

Continue reading

Free Lunch Fridays at the Vatican were always a hit

(From "Captain Courageous" number 6, 1942.)

The Legend of Primus

The Legend of Primus

By: Andrew Hines

Transformers is a huge piece of our childhood. There's really no denying that.   What you may not have now is that they inhabit a vast universe beyond anything the cartoons or movies ever managed to show. I won't pretend to know all about the characters in the world of Transformers, but I can tell you that this issue made me want to seriously get into the story of the Autobots. In this over-sized issue, we get to see someone other than Optimus Prime and the core members of the Autobots. The focus, this time is the crew of the Lost Light, which is in search of the City of Light, home to the fabled Circle of Light.

Writer James Roberts has scripted a wonderful issue. We don't just see a few characters here and there swapping witty banter, but rather, real interaction and classic Transformers references. Just because you don't see Optimus in this issue, doesn't mean you can't feel his presence at times, especially in Rodimus' actions as the commanding officer of the Lost Light. It branches out from their main mission into several smaller stories. It's just good writing in general. It manages to incorporate all of the great dialogue with good pacing.

The main artists, (my buddy) Jimbo Salgado and Emil Cabaltierra did a fantastic job on the pages. The lines on the interior art are fabulous and there's hardly a mis-step in the entire issue. The pencils are clean and the inks are finely tuned. There is a potion of flashback art, which was done by Guido Guidi, that looks very much like an 80s comic book. The colors by Juan Fernadez and Joanna Fuente are smooth and nearly flawless.  In total, I'd say there are very few, if any comics in the last week or two that look as good throughout. It looks as if these pages were exactly what the creators intended them to be.

I give this issue a solid "A". The creative team is awesome and the story is splendid. I really need to get back into reading Transformers if they all look like this and have such writing.

Scarlet Spider: Texas Hero

Scarlet Spider: Texas Hero

By: Andrew Hines

This is an awesome book. There, I said it. I'm a fan of characters like Kaine. The kind of guy who doesn't necessarily want to be a hero, but at the same time feels a drive to do the right thing. He blames Spider-Man for that, finally giving him a conscience. He's been in Austin, Texas for the last 9 months and is beginning to feel at home there. He even has something resembling a life and even friends. He's gotten away from the Kaine of old and is finally on the track to being a tried and true superhero.

Chris Yost has been doing a good job as the writer of this series since issue 1. He's taken Kaine from being just another spider-clone and definite baddie to his own brand of hero. Just when everything seems ten kinds of crazy, our old...err...acquaintance(?) Roxxon comes into the picture. Because what would a trip to Texas be without the presence of an oil company? This is a well-written issue, despite a slightly too clean ending.

The art works, primarily because of the pencils from Khoi Pham. The action shots are great and I don't see any angles that cause weird faces or anything. It fits with the cartoony style of the "Spider-Man Family". The best part, I believe, is the monster of the issue, Mammon. The inking and coloring teams do a good job as well.

I give this issue a solid "B", because of the overly clean ending. It's a better than average issue, but not exactly worthy of a standing ovation.